THE GATE GOURMET pickets were in a lively mood yesterday, full of determination that they were all going to get their jobs back in a ‘total victory’ for the workers.
Mr Dhillon told News Line: ‘We want everyone in on the old terms and conditions, not new ones.
‘We want no racism, no harassment, no bullying and no victimisation by Gate Gourmet.
‘We want to be treated like human beings, not animals. Cats and dogs get better treatment than we did at Gate Gourmet.
‘The whole union and the world will lose if we lose. Instead of democracy you’ll have dictatorship. We have to win for the sake of the whole working class.
‘At this moment £6.35 an hour, which was our wage rate, means we live a hand-to-mouth existence.
They can’t cut any more. It is very hard now to survive on this money because of the economy and this government.’
Another picket, Gary Singh, said: ‘We are all going back united. Gate Gourmet sacked us and we must all go back together.
‘We don’t want any ‘compromises’ with the Gate Gourmet management.’
Ferdinand Babaram told News Line: ‘Our aim is for full reinstatement. When we go back, we will all go back the way we came out – all together.
‘If we don’t win, it will be a big setback for the whole union, so they need to get more support from BA workers.’
Dhesi Jasbir told News Line: ‘We should do what they do in France, come on an all-out general strike to win.’
Sukhvinder said: ‘We will never be divided, when we go back into our jobs we will go together with our shop stewards.
‘If Gate Gourmet goes bankrupt the government must nationalise it and restore us all in our jobs on our old terms and conditions.’
Mr J Singh, said: ‘We will take each and every person back, one for all and all for one. The company should be nationalised, the whole airport should be nationalised.’
A younger picket, Harmit, said: ‘The reason I came out was to stand together.
‘I came out on the eleventh, we are not going to let them divide us up.
‘We all stand together. I’ve heard Gate Gourmet has a list of 37 names they don’t want back and they are the union reps and shop stewards.
‘They will never divide us up, never.’
Lakha Singh said: ‘First our shop stewards then us, that’s how it’s going to be.
‘Our shop stewards are going to lead us through the gate back into our jobs.’
• Second news story
BRAZILIANS SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH
Three visiting senior Brazilian judicial officials gave a press conference at the Brazilian Embassy in central London yesterday in connection with the murder of young Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes.
Deputy Attorney General Dr Wagner Goncalves, Ambassador Gomes Pereira (Brazilians Resident Abroad department chief) and Dr Marcio Garcia, Assistant Director of the Department of International Judicial Co-operation, said they wanted ‘to gain an understanding of the circumstances which led to the death of the Brazilian citizen Jean Charles de Menezes’.
Ambassador Pereira told journalists: ‘We want to spend time with the police, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IP CC)– to know how the authorities work here and to open channels of communication.’
Asked what the British police had told them, he replied: ‘Nothing more than what you know.’
Dr Garcia said: ‘We are trying to understand the legislation, how does it apply. It’s new legislation even for Britain.’
The Brazilian officials were asked was their visit prompted by the leaked IPCC witness documents that contradicted the original police version of events.
Ambassador Pereira said: ‘It was just a coincidence, we had already arranged to make our visit with Mr Straw.’
Asked their reaction to the leaked documents, Pereira said: ‘We were perplexed.’
Asked did he think there was a cover-up by the British police, he said: ‘We don’t have any idea.’
Asked if he expected any criminal charges to be brought against the British police, Pereira said: ‘We can’t say, we don’t know British legislation.’
The delegation did not know that the ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy was decided upon by the Association of Chief Police Officers, and had not been the subject of parliamentary legislation.